How to stay powered up as Hurricane Sandy comes down

Maximize battery life and keep the data flowing as long as possible.

Hurricane Sandy is shutting things down left and right: Google events, universities, public transportation, and plenty of offices (Ars not included). New York, New Jersey, Massachusetts, and Washington, D.C. have already had states of emergency declared and the worst of the storm is still to come.

Yes, the biggest problem is safety. Be sure to abide by evacuation notices and, as some government officials will tell you, "don't be stupid." Power outages are also a distinct possibility for many areas affected by the storm—CBS News reported more than 67,000 were without power across 10 East Coast states this morning, CNN tweeted the number exceeded 300,000 within the last hour. But we know keeping connected is a major concern for the Ars community (and it could help anyone in case of emergency). Naturally, extreme weather tends to hit both data and talk hard.

"There are a couple of problems with wireless in a hurricane, aside from power going out to cell towers," says Ars IT Editor (and Sandy target), Sean Gallagher (Baltimore, Maryland). "Rain fade is a big one—LTE and WiMAX bite it hard in heavy rain, as does satellite."

Staying informed

If you have functioning cable, Ethernet, WiFi, or LTE/your preferred data connection, this is pretty simple. But should that route go down, there are still ways to keep up to date with information. (Still, meaning beyond that battery powered or hand-cranked radio "everyone" has lying around.)

The government actually has an entire page set up to outline tech preparedness during an emergency. This includes some basic recommendations—download the FEMA app for preparedness tips, get the same info via text by sending "PREPARE" to 43362 (4FEMA). It lists a few common-sense tips as well:

If you are unsuccessful in completing a call using your cell phone, wait 10 seconds before redialing to help reduce network congestion.

If you lose power, you can charge your cell phone in your car. Just be sure your car is in a well-ventilated place (remove it from the garage) and do not go to your car until any danger has passed. You can also listen to your car radio for important news alerts.

If you have a traditional landline (non-broadband or VOIP) phone, keep at least one non-cordless reciever in your home because it will work even if you lose power.

Immediately following a disaster, resist using your mobile device to watch streaming videos, download music or videos, or play video games, all of which can add to network congestion. Limiting use of these services can help potentially life-saving emergency calls get through to 9-1-1.

You can also get non-FEMA Twitter updates sent directly to you by sending "Follow [username]" to 40404 on a US-based phone, regardless of whether you have a Twitter account of your own. (@twc_hurricane is sending out a variety of messages including storm accounts and updated safety information.)

Staying charged

Charge your devices while you can of course, but energy saving strategies for your phones, computers, and tablets will prove vital should power cut out. Ars Social Editor Cesar Torres dove deeper into the land of battery misery with an iPad in the Spring, but the broader tips there work well across devices:

Screen brightness eats power for breakfast. Keep it as low as you can for comfortable reading. (And remember, some devices even offer voice options that will allow you to nearly dull the screen entirely.)

Utilize Wi-Fi or data only when it's necessary. Airplane mode keeps you powered on longer.

Eliminate unnecessary automated actions such as notifications or location services, and definitely eliminate unnecessary apps or programs that may be sitting idle in the background.

Ultimately, you may be forced to make a decision about what device is most valuable. So make sure you have contingency plans to keep those going even if it takes the juice of other hardware.

"My strategy is to charge up every conceivable device, and use my phone to tether Internet when the power goes out," says Ars Senior IT Reporter Jon Brodkin (Massachusetts). "And I have a couple computers capable of charging my phone via USB from their battery reserves. (I'll do some car charging of the phone if necessary too.)"

Have other tips to share for our East Coast Arsians? Share them in the comments (then make sure to save a cache or PDF of this piece for reference).

If someone was to do that, they should have done it a LONG time ago -- not now. There were probably none for sale (even at outrageous prices) this entire past weekend.

Unfortunately true. The time to prepare is not when a disaster is looming -- because sometimes you don't get notice. That said, those preparing now are still doing a lot better than those who aren't preparing at all. For those who are generator shopping for some future event, get one with an inverter. They are more expensive, but you really don't want to try to charge your phone off the $300 Home Depot special.

Other useful items are solar powered battery chargers (for devices with removable batteries like AA and AAA) and wind-up dynamo items. Last time the power was out for a week here, having a wind-up camping lantern was super-helpful even though I had the generator for the freezer and essentials. Not so useful -- wind-up phone chargers. Better than nothing, but you'll be getting your exercise.

How well do some of those external battery packs that provide power via USB work? Just fine, or is there anything to to trip you up about them?

I have a Mophie JuicePack and it works pretty well, but you have to make sure to keep it charged and/or charge it semi-frequently. It tends to lose juice over time even if you're not plugging anything into it (I'm talking over a period of months, roughly). So if I haven't used it for 1.5 months and I'm about to go somewhere where I might need it, I try to charge it up again to make sure it's topped off.

Unfortunately true. The time to prepare is not when a disaster is looming -- because sometimes you don't get notice. That said, those preparing now are still doing a lot better than those who aren't preparing at all. For those who are generator shopping for some future event, get one with an inverter. They are more expensive, but you really don't want to try to charge your phone off the $300 Home Depot special.

You touch upon a good point--Most portable generators don't provide conditioned power, and extended use will shorten the life of devices plugged into them (Ask any contractor that does work at jobsites without electrical utilities).

My neighborhood can be hard hit (have had no power for over a week on multiple occasions), and living in a condo does limit options. A good UPS system will go a long way for keeping power to charge the minimal devices. Candles and oil lamps (when used with common sense) provide light for long periods of time.

Luckily, I have never lost gas, so my range can be used, if matches are available to light. For those without, a good camp stove can work in a pinch (I try to be well prepared).

I have a portable Briggs & Stratton 5000W generator; ran me about $700 and was purchased after Isabel cleaned house back in 2003. To date, I've used it over four significant power outages (3 or more days) to power kitchen appliances, medical equipment, and our home network (Cox modem, wireless-N router to devices). No issues whatsoever in terms of connection and equipment charging.

Other prep ideas: on hand cash, propane or charcoal grill for cooking and heating water, a bright lantern for the bathroom, pre-frozen blocks of ice in the freezer/fridge (gallon water jugs filled 3/4 full, then frozen), extra gasoline for gas-fired generator, and last but not least, a roll of quality duct tape.

Is using a car inverter to recharge an UPS to run a cable/dsl modem/router a feasible option?

The one I've got is rated for IIRC 1000W AC out if I used the alligator clamps to connect directly to my cars battery (cig adapter is only 100W); so I know it can deliver enough power to do the charging.

That leaves if I can pull a full ups charge (I've got 500 to 1300Va units) out the battery while the car's turned off; or if the inverter could keep up even when the engine is running.

Techwise, a UPS with a decent battery may be able to run/charge some of your less demanding gadgets during a power outage.

I've been meaning to get a UPS, whose sole purpose would be to power the cable model and the router.

That way I could still use my laptop (with it's fully charged battery) to get online while the power it out.

Cellular tethering is, at least in my experience, not really an ideal option. Every time I've tried it I've found it to drain the battery faster than a Hummer goes through gas, and the phone gets uncomfortably hot to boot. Unless you absolutely positively have to do something that you just can't do directly from your phone.

Bored Koi wrote:

Other prep ideas: ... propane or charcoal grill for cooking and heating water ...

I keep a propane cylinder in the basement, even though I don't even have a propane grill. I have one of those attachments that let's you use it as a heater.

One of my concerns is an extended power outage during the depths of winter, preventing our furnace from running.

Off topic, but a camp stove is always handy to have during these emergencies. Also, a cooler box, bottled water, batteries, flashlights, matches, blankets, gasoline, etc.

Techwise, a UPS with a decent battery may be able to run/charge some of your less demanding gadgets during a power outage.

Definitely a good call on some basic supplies.

The best use of a UPS I ever came up with was during a winter power outage at home. After I powered down all the computer and network equipment it was getting a little chilly... One long extension cord later and I was brewing coffee and hot chocolate for me and my GF. ;-)

What we have around my house:Non-perisable food for a weekBottled water/jugs of water for drinking and sanitationCandles and matches/lighters (save batteries for radios and other devices)Small generatorPower Inverter for the carExtra GasolineExtra Toiletpaper and paper towelsPlastic bagsTrashbagsBlanketsHand SanitizerExtra BatteriesFlashlights (just in case it isn't safe for candels/open flame)Wet WipesTopped off the cars with gasAt least a week worth of medicationsBattry powered radioGPS in case of evacuation or to find a shelter (new to the area and don't know way around yet)Emergency medical kit

Techwise, a UPS with a decent battery may be able to run/charge some of your less demanding gadgets during a power outage.

I've been meaning to get a UPS, whose sole purpose would be to power the cable model and the router.

That way I could still use my laptop (with it's fully charged battery) to get online while the power it out.

Unless your hardware's significantly more efficient than mine (Isp's favorite brand cable modem and no-name router running DDWRT), running networking gear on an ups is at best a medium term solution. Based on the incremental rundown time I saw over ~90 minutes during an extended outage last year my large 1300VA ups would have been able to give about 12 hours of modem and router runtime.

Biolite stoves. It's a small(ish) camp stove with a forced-air fan (hotter, cleaner burn) and a peltier. Cranks out, as I recall, 400mA or so at 5v. Won't exactly keep you running 24/7, but it'll charge your USB device.

And, of course, it still acts as a stove. You just need a supply of burnables; twigs, paper, wood chips...just about anything will work.

Ars should work up a tech-centric emergency preparedness kit. A lot of sites have good "survival" info (how to stay warm, how to make water drinkable, etc), not so much for how to stay connected.

Maybe test generators to see what's got the best fuel use, most power per unit of fuel, etc. Heating units; which last longest, are hottest? What should be on the generator in your house? The UPS? How can they be hooked up? What faraday/dynamo flashlights are brightest? Longest lasting?

A quick protip about UPSes - You can do a quick and dirty estimate of how long they'll last with a particular load if you know the load in watts. the "VA" ranking is the total amount of energy a UPS can contain without considering power factor. DC wattage can be considered equivalent to VA.

Any time you're working with watts on a consumer device, it's really watts per hour. So if you're running a device that draws 5v, 500mAh (2.5 watts) from a wall wart that has 80% efficiency, you're going to be pulling 2.5/.80 = 3.13 watts. If you have a UPS that maxes out at 500VA, you're pretty well set with your mobile devices for quite awhile.

https://discussions.apple.com/message/18288537#18288537 This post discusses the power an ipad charger uses, it claims the charger can use up to 10 watts. This translates to a 500VA battery backup being able to run an ipad charger for about 50 hours - or 40 if you assume 80% efficiency.

My cable modem draws 12v, 750 mah DC or 9 watts/hour. A spare router of mine draws 12v, 1a or 12 watts/hour. Running a cable modem, wifi router, and ipad charger combined would result in a load of 31 watts/hour, or 38.75 if you assume the wall warts convert AC to DC power at 80% efficiency. This would mean that your 500VA battery backup would run this load for 500/38.75 = ~13 hours.

I hope this helps! If I have any huge math errors, please point them out.

Try and find one hours before a storm hits, or better yet, after the fact. Good luck. If you don't already have one, you're out of luck. Hurricanes, unlike tornado's, are forecast weeks in advance (with variable tracking paths). As I live in Florida (a state that has seen its fair share of hurricanes) I can say with confidence that by the night prior to this storm hitting, all store shelves were nearly bare, hardware supplies were gone, and anyone who waited till the last minute to prepare is SOL. That's why I have a natural gas generator, natural gas for my stove and dryer, and a nice propane grill. Should a storm hit here, I'll have refrigeration, A/C, and electric thanks to my generator along with the ability to boil water on my stove thanks to natural gas. If you live on the coast you need to be prepared at all times (just like folks in tornado prone areas tend to have storm cellars). Any coastal region can be hit by storms like these.

At least this is only a category 1 storm. I've been through much worse in the nearly 40 years I've lived in Florida.

Quote:

A quick protip about UPSes - You can do a quick and dirty estimate of how long they'll last with a particular load if you know the load in watts. the "VA" ranking is the total amount of energy a UPS can contain without considering power factor. DC wattage can be considered equivalent to VA.

True, but this is also where a Kill-a-watt meter comes in handy. This way you know exactly what your equipment pulls when in use.

I only have a UPS to protect against over voltage and brownouts since I have a big whole home generator.

Aside from the difficulty obtaining one as the storm is bearing down, which others have pointed out, generators aren't really a good choice for folks in urban environments, since they they tend to make some very rudimentary and stupid mistakes when running them. Generator-related fatalities occur during most Gulf Coast hurricanes, because some people run the damn things indoors. If you're in an apartment, tossing the genny in a bedroom and cracking the window is NOT going to keep you from spreading fumes throughout your building.

Yeah, seems obvious, lol generators go outside, but people tend to become pretty stupid when faced with disasters. Just "buy a generator" doesn't help if you don't have a safe place to store and run it, along with a similarly safe place to store its fuel supply.

Aside from the difficulty obtaining one as the storm is bearing down, which others have pointed out, generators aren't really a good choice for folks in urban environments, since they they tend to make some very rudimentary and stupid mistakes when running them. Generator-related fatalities occur during most Gulf Coast hurricanes, because some people run the damn things indoors. If you're in an apartment, tossing the genny in a bedroom and cracking the window is NOT going to keep you from spreading fumes throughout your building.

Yeah, seems obvious, lol generators go outside, but people tend to become pretty stupid when faced with disasters. Just "buy a generator" doesn't help if you don't have a safe place to store and run it, along with a similarly safe place to store its fuel supply.

Besides those problems, you also have the issue of getting gas. If the whole area is generally suffering from a lack of power, the likelihood of getting gas is nebulous at best. When Wilma hit Florida, there were only a handful of gas stations that had backup generators to run their pumps. You could literally spend three to five hours in line just to fill a few gas cans for your portable generator.

Florida passed a law requiring all gas stations to have emergency generators on hand after Wilma. Still, most don't have them, and enforcement is disgustingly lax. So, you really need to be prepared well before hand.

I've been meaning to get a UPS, whose sole purpose would be to power the cable model and the router.

That way I could still use my laptop (with it's fully charged battery) to get online while the power it out.

In an extended outage, it's quite possible your ISP won't have power either, at least not for long.

Very unlikely. Telecoms must have backup generators by law. And I've yet to meet the cable company that doesn't have solid backup power either. What will be affected is wireless. Internet access and POTS will generally be up and working. After Wilma, my land line worked just fine, as did my Internet when I was using my (at the time) portable generator to power my PC. Wireless was spotty, and electric was out for nearly a month.

Aside from the difficulty obtaining one as the storm is bearing down, which others have pointed out,

Maybe not so hard to get, according to Yahoo!, they are still selling generators today at Home Depot and Lowes.

I imagine if power failures occur, then it gets diffiicult to purchase a generator.

What do you mean by "according to Yahoo?"

Like, are you reading a story talking about them being available, or does Yahoo! return stock status for local stores?

I know that in the past any time I've been faced with a major storm, all the local stores are out of generators. Because every year there are people like me who failed to get them before the last storm, who suddenly decide to get prepared...at the last minute.

Same as trying to find an air conditioner (particularly specific form factors, sizes, etc) right before a late summer heat wave.

Good point from Lee, too, that generators don't necessarily work for everybody, especially in urban areas.

One thing to watch is many UPS units will not turn on again once they have been powered off if there is no AC present at the outlet. So if you power it off to save the battery and then attempt to power it back on, it won't fire up.

A better option is a good quality sine wave inverter, 500-1000 watts, and a deep cycle battery that you can store in the garage attached to a trickle charger. This way you can use it as needed, and power it off when done, and a true sine wave inverter will have a much higher conversion efficiency, though they will cost more. Don't get a bigger inverter then you will need as it'll just eat more power, think of it like a computer power supply, oversized it'll just waste power. A good deep cycle battery will set you back couple hundred but it'll far outlast the batteries in a UPS, and it'll work when you need it. Combine that will LED lightbulbs in the 3-5 watt range and you'll have light and power to charge devices as needed for quite some time. This is especially handy if you are somewhere that you can't use a generator.

As many have said, basic food stuffs for a week, water, first aid, and a good camping stove are high on the list. I like the pressure fed multifuel camp stoves, they can burn gas, white gas, kerosene etc and will put out a lot of heat. However a 5 gallon bottle of propane and an adapter for a small propane camp stove, will last a long while too. Hiking boots and a good pair of work gloves are another good thing to have, most people forget how important it is to get around a torn up area if you don't have footwear that will protect your feet or gloves to save your hands.

It's generally a good idea to go over your gear a couple times a year, the time changes are a good time to go over everything again.

One more hint: turn your computer (preferably a laptop) on, login, and turn off all your unnecessary programs, taskbar items, etc. and set your power settings to maximize battery life, reduce your display brightness, turn off unnecessary Bluetooth, wireless, etc. Then let the computer go to standby/hibernate while still being plugged in and charging. Your computer uses a bit of power to boot up (particularly with hard drives), so this will save you some juice if the power goes out, and your settings will prepare you for a longer, if slower and dimmer, haul.

Also, wash your clothes and dishes while you have power because you might not be able to later on. In the same line of thought, have your emergency stuff out so that you can see and access it if the lights go out. Maps and such are also good if you're in a non-urban setting.

While not for everyone I love my oil lamps. The soft glow of fire to read read by.

A couple of solar chargers also help to top off phones and pads.

Last and decidedly not for everyone a hatchet. Mine has been used to help clear roads, and get cars unstuck.

During one ice storm I was driving a small generator to my mothers. Only 2kw but enough to turn the fridge on and relight the furance and hot water tank(they were gas). I literally had to chop and dig my way through the back roads.

The biggest issue there is to make sure it's a decent quality inverter, a lot of the crap ones sold at Lowe's etc, put out power that more square wave then sine wave. You need a decent modified sine wave inverter at the minimum in order to run a charger like a ups has properly, or you can damage it. If you are going to buy an inverter, go for quality over wattage, a good inverter will cost more for fewer watts but your electronics will work a lot better on it.